Why the Trump method of imposing a peace deal from above can never produce a lasting solution - Andy Brown

Unfortunately, letting the current US President negotiate the terms of the peace deal does not seem like a very reliable way to achieve a lasting end to the war. It seems much more likely to give Vladimir Putin a substantial reward for aggression, to leave Ukraine weak and vulnerable to future attacks and to pave the way for a compliant client of Moscow and Washington being put in charge of the country.

No part of the peace plan that has been negotiated originated with reliable allies of Ukraine or aligned with the key strategic interests of the UK. Some small tinkering with an already disastrous surrender document is the best that our nation has been able to provide for Zelensky despite all the fine promises.

It is a plan that might suit a property developer looking to take advantage of a country in bad need of reconstruction where there are opportunities to do deals and gain access to rare minerals and large internationally funded construction projects.

It is not a plan that provides any confidence that peace is permanent and that genuine détente is back on the table.

I am reminded of the pictures of Chamberlain coming back from Munich waving a piece of paper and proclaiming peace in our time. He was met with mass relief and much cheering. Followed by mass destruction and much suffering.

Trump is playing the part of Chamberlain with enthusiasm as he tells us he deserves the Nobel peace prize for an act of appeasement. Unfortunately Keir Starmer is not playing anything like the part of Churchill or Atlee as he caves in to our former ally.

He fails to recognise that we now have an enemy of every decent value Britain stands for making decisions in the White House.

Problems also abound with the other major conflict Trump wants to be crediting with fixing.

Peace and security is much needed right now in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Israel and across the wider Middle East.

It would take a hard heart to look at the pictures of utter devastation that have come out of Gaza and want the conflict to continue.

The pictures of ordinary Israeli citizens grieving over the remains of their friends and relatives who got taken hostage and never returned are every bit as tough to watch.

We should never forget that many of these Jewish hostages had been protesting against the policies and the corruption of Benjamin Netanyahu in the weeks before they were captured.

Collective punishment of an entire race for the crimes of individuals belonging to their community has long been a war crime and the actions of Hamas fell under that category.

Applying the same logic means it was also a crime for Benjamin Netanyahu to shell entire cities into ruin and bomb hospitals punishing everyone in Gaza.

He claimed to be carefully and precisely targeting Hamas fighters whilst flattening everything.

A secure peace needs those on both sides of the divide to recognise the rights of those on the other side.

It cannot be enforced at the point of a gun if there is to be any hope of it lasting and being built upon.

What guarantees do the people of Palestine have that the land that they own will not be taken from them by force to make way for land thieves who describe themselves as ‘settlers’?

Ask yourself how you would react if a ‘settler’ from the US arrived in Yorkshire and forced you off land you owned at gun point and you get some idea of how likely it is that peace can be achieved in the Middle East without security of ownership of property for the Palestinians. Land is still being stolen in the West Bank.

The Trump method of imposing a peace deal from above can never produce a lasting solution. For the people living in the east of Ukraine the only fair way of deciding what country they belong to should be their own free choice.

They deserve national self-determination not to be victims of great power decisions they have no say in.

The people living inside Israel and the occupied territories also deserve choices about their own identity and the right to live in peace and freedom secure in their lives and property. All of those people on both sides.

It is dangerously unlikely that this is what Trump’s shaky ceasefire deal has set in motion.

Andy Brown is the Green Party councillor for Aire Valley.